Bottle of Red
by HecateA
Summary: In which Kingsley stops a very tired and boring-looking Tonks from doing something rash in Aisle 7 of their local pharmacy. Oneshot.


**Author's note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #10, Poetry Studies, Task #3: Write about someone dealing with a nasty breakup

**Warnings: **NA

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**Bottle of Red **

She was in a foul mood even before a shopping cart rammed into the back of her knees.

She held back a rather potent cuss, which was good because it turned out that a seven-year-old child had been the one piloting the metal death trap, anyways.

"I am _so _sorry," the boy's mother soon said. "Dylan, tell the lady you're sorry!"

"I'm sorry," Dylan said.

"Yeah, no problem," Tonks said. "I get it, they're hard to steer. Keep practising, okay?"

"Not today, you won't," Dylan's mother said, reclaiming control of the cart and moving on, leaving her whining son scrambling to follow her.

Dora rubbed down one of her legs and turned back to the shelf she'd been studying.

Nobody that she knew could know about this. None of them. A Metamorphmagus, purchasing a bottle of hair dye. How wildly absurd, was that?

Well, there she was. She'd had enough of her colleagues and her friends' and the Order's and her family's looks of confusion and concern when they saw her face, and she especially hated the look of her ridiculous face in the mirror—exactly the same day after day, her features uncooperative and unbudging.

With an especially passionate hatred, she deterested that stupid mop of brown hair topping her stupid head. She'd have enough of it, thank you very much, and she was taking this disobliging body of hers in her own hands—starting with that hated hair. It wouldn't help her convince the higher ups to put her back on any of the long-term undercover missions she was so good at, but fuck them anyways. If they wanted to waste her on paperwork and babysitting Hogwarts, then they could take a long walk off a short cliff. At least she wouldn't cringe when her hair fell in her face and she remembered how dull and boring and static it looked. Brown was a colour that had been made to be passed over as soon as humanly possible, she was sure of it.

The fact that there _were _quite a few hair dye options for brown was beside the point, as was the fact that Remus' eyes happened to be a very comforting chocolate brown. Dear Merlin, what a stupid thought. She wondered if the thought had been such a useless, spineless, nonsense thing to think that her outside appearance had _actually _regressed to show some soppy, woebegone bimbo.

She was going to run out of words to describe how much she hated this manifestation of herself. Maybe what she needed was a thesaurus instead of a bottle of hair dye, but no matter.

She reached for a red one. She did like red—it was a warm colour. Hot, visible, unique, it stood out in the crowd… she'd had a phase at Hogwarts where she'd worn her hair red for weeks in a row, because the Defense Against The Dark Arts professor at the time had told her that it was an obnoxious colour. The model on the label boasted a much more subdued shade—more cherry than candy apple... She considered it a second before she kept going through bottles.

"Well, well, well," she head. "Look who we have here…"

She turned around and there was Kingsley. What on Earth was he doing in a Muggle pharmacy? If he was buying condoms, she'd punch his teeth out. She'd do it.

"A Metamorphmagus in the hair dye aisle…"

"I didn't invite you to come along, did I?" Tonks said.

"Well, you are just a block away from the office where all the Aurors always go when the cafeteria's closed. I'm a perfectly coincidental bystander, minding my own business. I just thought I'd grab my usual," Kingsley said. "Twelve hour shift, and so on."

"You do realize that your usual is a pack of Jaffa cakes, two packs of crisps, and a soda, and it is in fact 7:00 a.m.," Tonks checked in.

"I'm working a twelve hour shift, what do you want from me?" Kingsley asked.

"I'm coming off a twelve hour shift, what do _you _want from me?" Tonks asked.

"I want you to put this down," Kingsley said, snatching the hair dye from her hand and putting it back on the shelf for her. "If you want your hair changed, do it yourself."

"Mind your own business, will you?" Tonks shot back.

"You _are _my business, you're my friend," Kingsley said. "And you're a good one. I like the kind of person you are, Tonks. I get that you don't like yourself right now—I know that Remus leaving was hard and you're not sure what to do with yourself and all the other things that happen after a break up. But you're not going to get around that by changing who you are with Muggle chemicals. And you really, really shouldn't even try. There's nothing wrong with you. You just need time."

Tonks stared at him with the coldest, hardest look she could—channeling everything she had in her about keeping quiet and keeping strict during an interrogation.

"He doesn't even know," Tonks said. "He's an idiot and he doesn't actually get it. I just want to forget about it."

"I know, Kingsley said. "He's an idiot."

"Yeah," Tonks said. That didn't help.

"Come on," Kingsley said. "I'll share my Jaffa Cakes with you."

"I just came off a shift, I'm not going back to the office," she said, rubbing her eyes. She realised now just how tired she was.

"I'll give you one for the road, then," he said. He offered his arm to her. "Come on."

She took it and walked with him to the cash register, leaning her tired and very brown head against his shoulder.

That helped a little.

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Wars; Hogwarts; Winter Bingo

**Individual Challenge(s): **Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Hufflepuff MC; Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Change); Themes & Things B (Loneliness); Ethnic & Present; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count: **955

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks

**List (Prompt): **Winter Big List (Not Actually Unrequited)

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_**Winter Bingo**_

**Space (prompt): **1C (Red)


End file.
